A vital cog in the Bangladeshi line-up, Shakib Al Hasan, unarguably, has been the best all-rounder to have emerged from Bangladesh. He first came into notice when he played cricket for sever...Full profile

A vital cog in the Bangladeshi line-up, Shakib Al Hasan, unarguably, has been the best all-rounder to have emerged from Bangladesh. He first came into notice when he played cricket for several villages near his hometown of Magura. The left-hander spent time honing his skills at a government run sports facility and was picked for the Under-19 squad for the tri-series featuring England and Sri Lanka. A match-winning 86-ball century and three wickets in the final against Sri Lanka earned him selection for the series against Zimbabwe.

Just before the 2007 World Cup, Shakib shot to limelight scoring a hundred against Canada in a tri-series in West Indies. And on the big stage, in their opening match against one of the favourites India, he scored a composed fifty and bowled 10 tight overs for 44 runs without a wicket as Bangladesh secured one of their biggest wins.

What helped Shakib standout in a crop of new Bangladeshi talent that surfaced during mid-2000s was his ability to be consistent. Soon after his heroics against India, Shakib scored a ton against Pakistan. And then, a year later facing New Zealand, he returned with figures of 7/36, which till date is the best figures by a Bangladeshi bowler. In what turned out to be a major milestone of his career, he also contributed with a fifty in the second innings to set New Zealand a challenging 317. However, with little support, he ended up on the losing side.

Having taken over captaincy from Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib became the first Bangladeshi captain to lead his side to an overseas Test win, beating a depleted West Indies in 2009. Later that year Shakid decided to have a feel of overseas conditions as well. He was the first Bangladeshi player to be signed by a county team. He joined Worcestershire for the 2010 season.

As expected Shakib's stint with Worcestershire exposed him to different challenges and he returned a complete cricketer. While in England, he took 35 wickets in a single season, including his best figures of 7/32 against Middlesex to help the County get promoted to Division 1 of the championship. Along the way, he was the leading wicket-taker and run-scorer when Bangladesh achieved a whitewash over New Zealand in 2010.

Shakib led well during 2011 World Cup that Bangladesh hosted alongside India and Sri Lanka. The team registered wins against England, Ireland and Netherlands but failed to go beyond the first round. Heavy criticism followed team's exit from the World Cup but putting all that aside he shone bright for Kolkata during the 2011 IPL.

After he was removed from captaincy ahead of the tour of West Indies, Shakib decided to answer through his performances, and finished as the highest wicket-taker in both the ODIs and Tests. Although, once again he was on the wrong side of the result. Later in the year, Shakib was Bangladesh's top run-scorer and wicket-taker in the home Test series against Pakistan in December 2011. In the second Test of the series, he became Bangladesh's first player to score a century and take five wickets in an innings. Fittingly, he rose to No. 1 in the ICC's ranking of Test all-rounders.

Another big moment in his cricketing career came when he was at the forefront of Bangladesh's run to the final of the Asia Cup where they lost to Pakistan by two runs. Shakib scored 237 runs, including three fifties and also took six wickets. He was adjudged as the Player of the Tournament award and he reclaimed the No.1 ODI all-rounder spot from Australia's Shane Watson. Later that year in the 2012 edition of the IPL, Shakib played in eight of Kolkata's 18 matches and won two Man of the Match awards as the team won the IPL for the first time.

During the home series against West Indies in 2012, Shakib became the second Bangladeshi player to take 100 Test wickets, making him the leading wicket-taker in Tests for Bangladesh. He also achieved the feat of becoming the fastest all-rounder to take 100 wickets and score 1,000 runs. He achieved the milestone in just 28 matches. However, he was ruled out of the ODI and T20 series due to a shin injury.

It's not that his career has been free of controversies, he was punished by the BCB for making an inappropriate gesture on live television during the second ODI against Sri Lanka in February 2014. He was also fined 300,000 Takas (3800 USD) and was suspended for the next three matches, which included the first two matches of the 2014 Asia Cup.

Shakib recovered from the blow and as expected emerged as Bangladesh's best bowler in World T20, 2014. However his solo heroics were not good enough to help Bangladesh win a single match in the tournament. A few months later in June 2014, Shakib was allegedly involved in a brawl with a spectator, who was reportedly harassing his wife in the grandstand of Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, during the first ODI against India. His 'severe attitude problem' over the months forced the BCB to ban him for six months from all forms of cricket. The ban was reduced to three and a half months, allowing him to be available for selection from September 15, 2014.

In November 2014, Shakib joined a prestigious list that had names of Imran Khan and Ian Botham. He became only the third player in the history to score a hundred and take 10 wickets in the same Test. He achieved this feat against Zimbabwe. Later that year he was was signed by the Melbourne Renegades to play in the Big Bash League.

Post a successful World Cup campaign in 2015, Bangladesh continued their good form in the 50-over format. The consistent Shakib played a huge factor in his team’s hat-trick of ODI series victories - against Pakistan, India and South Africa - all at home. Barring his unbeaten 50 against Pakistan, Shakib didn’t have a great WT20 held in India in 2016 and that didn’t help his team’s cause as they failed to register a single win during the Super-10 stage. He terms the one-run defeat against India in Bengaluru and the 2012 Asia Cup final loss as two of his major cricket regrets he would like to erase.

Although Shakib didn’t contribute much with the bat, he played the perfect foil to debutant Mehedi Hasan during the Test series against England. The all-rounder picked 12 wickets in two matches and helped his team square the 2-match Test series 1-1, that also involved Bangladesh’s first Test victory against England. The tour to New Zealand saw Shakib reach greater heights when he amassed 217 runs in the first innings at Wellington. He was involved in a record 359-run stand with Rahim. But, he followed it up with a duck before Bangladesh collapsed and lost the game despite posting a gigantic score of 595 in the first essay.

After a decent outing in the one-off Test against India, Shakib had a superb tour of Sri Lanka. He brought up his fifth Test ton in Bangladesh’s historic 100th Test match. That knock proved to be instrumental in Bangladesh winning the match and squaring the series 1-1. He was the Man of the Series for scoring 162 runs and taking 9 wickets. In the shortest format as well, his all-round performances helped Bangladesh level the T20I series 1-1. After Mortaza announced his retirement from the 20-over format, BCB appointed Shakib as the T20I skipper.

Bangladesh's rise across the formats has been a reflection of the giant strides Shakib took in his career. However, in September 2017, Shakib requested the board to allow him a break from Test cricket. The move was seen as a well thought one to prolong the career at a time when the growing demands of non-stop cricket had started taking its toll on cricketers. The board agreed partially - Shakib had asked for a six-month break - and allowed him to skip the Test series against South Africa.